Description
The manor of Hedingham was awarded to Aubrey de Vere I by King William the Conqueror by 1086. The castle was constructed by the de Veres in the late 11th to early 12th century and the keep in the 1130s and 1140s. To accommodate the existing castle, a large ditch was cut through a natural spur westward into the Colne Valley in order to form a ringwork and inner bailey; an outer bailey extended south further into the valley and what is now the modern village of Castle Hedingham. The stone keep survives in a very good state of preservation and is open to the public.
The keep is nearly square: the east and west sides are 53 ft (16 m) long and the north-south sides about 58 ft (18 m). It stands more than 70 ft (21 m) tall; (the turrets rise an additional 15 to 25 ft (4.6 to 7.6 m) above the parapets) and it commands the countryside around it from its elevated position atop the ringwork. The walls are about 11 ft (3.4 m) thick at the base and average 10 ft (3.0 m) at the top. They are constructed from flint rubble bound with lime mortar, but, very unusually for an Essex castle, are faced with ashlar stone transported from a quarry in Barnack, Northamptonshire.
The keep has four floors, including the Great or Banqueting Hall with a central arch extending two stories and a fireplace. The top floor may have been added around the 15th century, replacing an impressive pyramid-shaped roof. This is a recent theory, however, and many older sources have noted the similar plans of Hedingham Castle and Rochester Castle, which was begun about 1126 and has four floors.
Two of the original four corner turrets are missing, and it seems likely that their demise was a result of an attempt to demolish the building for materials rather than through military action. The keep is the only medieval element of the castle to have survived; the hall, drawbridge, and outbuildings all having been replaced during the Tudor period by structures which—with the exception of a brick bridge—have now also been lost.
A chapel was located to the south of the stone keep within the inner bailey.
A red-brick bridge of 4 spans connects the inner bailey to the outer bailey lying to the north-east. It was built in late 15th or early 16th century has been restored several times. A Queen Anne style red-brick mansion was built in the outer bailey by Sir William Ashhurst (an MP and a former Lord Mayor of London) between his purchase of the property in 1693 and his death in 1719.
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